Shaping your environment to create the right headspace is a vital key to losing weight.
Over the past couple of years I have fashioned an environment that has been anything but conducive to supporting a healthy lifestyle.
Working seven days a week sustaining two jobs has been mentally and physically draining. Spending two hours a day (in total) travelling to and from work and then sitting at a desk for 7.5 hours has limited my capacity for movement. Being too tired to care about what I have been putting in my mouth has resulted in excess calories. Getting stuck in a rut and believing I can’t get out of it has created road blocks for change.
I want to be healthy, I want to be active and I want to live a long and happy life.
To make it as easy as possible to achieve these aspirations, I need to shape my environment to complement them.
So I have given my life a bit of a makeover!
My husband and I moved closer to the city to reduce our travelling time to work. With no children left at home, no home ownership and a low threshold for unhappiness we decided it was time to shake things up. I now walk an hour a day to get to work instead of spending two hours sitting on a train. That extra hour I get back in my day gives me time to meditate and the mental energy to be more disciplined about what I put in my mouth.
We downsized from a 4 bedroom home to a 2 bedroom unit and chose a location that enticed us to get out and move more. Every morning we get up and exercise by the Brisbane river along with many other active people. We have never felt more alive.
On the weekends we walk to all of our social outings and spend double the amount of time outdoors than what we did before.
Because we are outside more I don’t spend my entire weekend working on my computer. I stand down from the Happy Art and try to create more space to nourish me.
In other words I have shaped my environment to ensure the changes that I want to make are as easy as possible to achieve and maintain long term.
Of course there will be times when I will falter and possibly lapse back into bad habits, that’s called being realistic. But the beauty is that I have made it as easy as possible to get back on track. My external environment is now aligning with my internal environment and when the two are working together great stuff happens!
Is there something that you can do to shape your environment to match your goals?
Not everyone can just up and move homes, I know!
But there will be other things unique to your situation that you can implement. Maybe it could be as simple as not putting food into your house, such as cakes and lollies, that will entice you to eat unhealthy!
Have a ponder and see what you can come up with. Shaping your environment is the key to losing weight successfully.
Be happy, colour the world.
Claire
Great read, Claire. I, too, made some big changes this year and lost almost twenty pounds. got more active, balanced my hormones, started to sing, am finally blogging weekly and just plain got more engaged in life. It has been such an amazing journey. It started with figuring out my “why” – to be more healthy so I could enjoy our trip to Europe last spring, feel good about myself, and stop wasting energy with negative self talk about my body. Wow! What a difference since getting that part of my life under control. Thanks for the reminder that our environment shapes our attitudes about life and to clean up what we can. Always enjoy your posts.
Carole, so lovely to read your comment. I too believe in figuring out your “why” because that really drives your motivation. You must be so proud of what you have achieved and I love hearing that you are singing. Your comment has inspired me even more so thanks again for sharing. I am going to pop on over to fuzzy red socks now because I think I have been missing out on your weekly blogs. I too thoroughly enjoy reading your posts.